Jones, Quincy

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QUINCY JONES

Born: Chicago, Illinois, 14 March 1933

Genre: R&B, Pop, Jazz

Best-selling album since 1990: Q's Jook Joint (1995)

Hit songs since 1990: "I'll Be Good to You," "You Put a Move on My Heart"

In a diverse career ranging through six decades of African-American musical styles, from 1950s jazz to hip-hop of the 1990s and 2000s, Quincy Jones has earned his reputation as an American institution, excelling as an arranger, producer, instrumentalist, songwriter, film composer, and solo artist. The key ingredient of Jones's lasting success, apart from far-reaching talent, has been his breadth of vision. Viewing music as a multi-colored tapestry, Jones has repeatedly transcended categorical limitations, infusing his work with a wide array of elements: classical, pop, jazz, blues, and R&B. At the same time he has become one of the top businesspeople within the record industry, proving that art and commerce can reside side by side peaceably. In the 1990s, after health and personal problems threatened a setback, Jones remained active in music, film, and television production, running his own record label and recording all-star albums that reflected his catholic taste.

Young Arranger and Producer

Jones spent his early years on Chicago's South Side, an African-American neighborhood rich with a palette of music during the 1930s and 1940s. Although she suffered bouts of mental illness, Jones's mother was a learned and intelligent woman who instilled in him a love of music. In 1943 the family moved to Seattle, Washington, where Jones learned to play a variety of instruments before focusing on the trumpet. While still a teenager he performed with future R&B star Ray Charles, and after graduation from high school won a scholarship to study music at the prestigious Schillinger House in Boston. In the early 1950s Jones moved to New York City and began working as a musical arranger, overseeing recording sessions for artists such as jazz singer Helen Merrill, trumpeter Clifford Brown, and famed "Queen of the Blues," Dinah Washington. Jones spent a large portion of the 1950s in Europe, where he organized a jazz musical theater play in 1959.

Deeply in debt after continuing to pay the musicians' salaries once the show had dissolved, Jones returned to the United States, where he joined Chicago-based Mercury Records as vice president in 1961. The first African American to hold a senior position within a large record company, Jones produced his biggest pop hit at Mercury with "It's My Party," a 1963 smash by teen star Lesley Gore. At the same time, Jones began releasing his own albums and composing musical scores for Hollywood films such as In Cold Blood and In the Heat of the Night (both 1967). Like his solo albums, Jones's film scores were lush, hip, and atmospheric, appealing to pop listeners while retaining a jazz-based groove.

New Directions in the 1970s and 1980s

Jones continued to work steadily throughout the 1960s and 1970s, although a brain aneurysm nearly killed him in 1974. Given a one-in-one-hundred chance of recovering, Jones rebounded with energy and strength, producing some of the most successful work of his career. On albums such as Body Heat (1974), Jones merges his jazz sensibility with 1970s R&B and funk. In the late 1970s he began collaborating with pop star Michael Jackson, overseeing production on Thriller (1982), the best-selling album in recorded history. For Thriller, Jones constructed a thick, dense series of beats that found a winning middle ground between R&B and pop. "We Are the World" (1985), a single that Jones produced for the relief organization USA for Africa, brought him further acclaim on the basis of its all-star vocal cast and humanitarian message.

By this time, Jones possessed the clout to assemble diverse groups of performers under one roof, a testament to his stature within the music industry. Released on his own Qwest label, Back on the Block (1989) was one such effort, a collection of jazzy R&B featuring guest artists such as Ray Charles, rapper Kool Moe Dee, and keyboardist Herbie Hancock. In 1985 Jones again turned his energies to Hollywood, producing the film The Color Purple, starring actors Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover. The heavy responsibilities of Jones's new endeavor took a toll: In 1986 he suffered an emotional breakdown, followed by divorce from his wife, actress Peggy Lipton, in 1990. After taking time to refocus on a quiet island in Tahiti, Jones bounced back by founding Vibe, a magazine devoted to hip-hop and rap culture, in 1992. He also produced the hit television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which starred rapper and actor Will Smith and ran from 1990 to 1996.

1990s Diversity

Jones continued to record during the 1990s, his work displaying more of a contemporary R&B feel than the swinging jazz arrangements he created in the past. As cultural critic Gerald Early noted for PBS television network's American Masters program in 2001, Jones is a "culminator," rather than an innovator. Rarely inaugurating new styles, Jones instead assembles the finest work of the past into a new, exciting brew. Q's Jook Joint (1995) is an attempt to fit a range of twentieth-century African-American music, from 1940s vocal jazz to 1970s disco, within the context of a modern R&B album. Again Jones gathers an all-star lineup, including R&B singer Brian McKnight and jazz flutist Hubert Laws.

Despite Jones's historical jazz sensibility, the album is weighted toward the contemporary. "You Put a Move on My Heart," featuring young R&B singer Tamia, is a strong ballad, informed with the slow-building passion of religious gospel music, while Michael Jackson's 1979 hit "Rock with You" is updated with an electronic funk arrangement by teenage R&B star Brandy. Critics note that other songs are less successful: The jazz-styled funk of "Cool Joe, Mean Joe (Killer Joe)" is a bit too clean-sounding, and vocal group Take 6 is unable to handle the tricky phrasing on the jazz standard, "Moody's Mood for Love." The disappointment of such tracks points to the down side of Jones's eclecticism. His familiarity with so many different styles sometimes prevents him from digging into the emotional core of his material. As a result, critics have observed that Q's Jook Joint has the feel of a discursive survey, rather than a detailed exploration. On the whole, however, the album emerges as a worthy effort, informed by Jones's vast knowledge and discernment.

While Jones continued to score films during the late 1990s, working on the hit movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), he also devoted time to more personal projects. In 2000 he released Basie and Beyond, a tribute to great jazz bandleader Count Basie. One of the few pure jazz works of Jones's later career, the album features a large orchestra consisting of top players such as percussionist Paulinho Da Costa. Although only one of the songs, "For Lena and Lennie," is actually associated with Basie, Jones and arranger Sammy Nestico capture Basie's gently swinging rhythmic style. Like Jones's R&B albums, Basie and Beyond is more pleasant than trenchant, the music gliding on a feathery bed of sound. On "Grace," an elegiac mood is created through trilling woodwinds and dark-sounding brass, but the arrangement never attains the level of complexity that would make it truly memorable. Still, Basie and Beyond qualifies as a laudable attempt to bypass mainstream pop audiences in favor of reaching a loyal jazz base.

Since the 1950s Jones has continuously sought to balance his various influences and instincts, creating music that looks to the past while staying rooted in the present. Defining the range of possibilities for the contemporary African-American musical artist, Jones excels in every field of entertainment. Regardless of style, his work is informed with unerring professionalism and taste.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

The Birth of a Band (Mercury, 1959); Walking in Space (A&M, 1969); Body Heat (A&M, 1974); The Dude (A&M, 1981); Back on the Block (Qwest, 1989); Q's Jook Joint (Qwest, 1995); Basie and Beyond (Warner, 2000).